Intravenous versus oral etoposide: efficacy and correlation to clinical outcome in patients with high-grade metastatic gastroenteropancreatic neuroendocrine neoplasms (WHO G3)

Abir Salwa Ali, Malin Grönberg, Seppo W Langer, Morten Ladekarl, Geir Olav Hjortland, Lene Weber Vestermark, Pia Österlund, Staffan Welin, Henning Grønbæk, Ulrich Knigge, Halfdan Sorbye, Eva Tiensuu Janson

6 Citations (Scopus)
23 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

High-grade gastroenteropancreatic neuroendocrine neoplasms (GEP-NENs, G3) are aggressive cancers of the digestive system with poor prognosis and survival. Platinum-based chemotherapy (cisplatin/carboplatin + etoposide) is considered the first-line palliative treatment. Etoposide is frequently administered intravenously; however, oral etoposide may be used as an alternative. Concerns for oral etoposide include decreased bioavailability, inter- and intra-patient variability and patient compliance. We aimed to evaluate possible differences in progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) in patients treated with oral etoposide compared to etoposide given as infusion. Patients (n = 236) from the Nordic NEC study were divided into three groups receiving etoposide as a long infusion (24 h, n = 170), short infusion (≤ 5 h, n = 33) or oral etoposide (n = 33) according to hospital tradition. PFS and OS were analyzed with Kaplan-Meier (log-rank), cox proportional hazard ratios and confidence intervals. No statistical differences were observed in PFS or OS when comparing patients receiving long infusion (median PFS 3.8 months, median OS 14.5 months), short infusion (PFS 5.6 months, OS 11.0 months) or oral etoposide (PFS 5.4 months, OS 11.3 months). We observed equal efficacy for the three administration routes suggesting oral etoposide may be safe and efficient in treating high-grade GEP-NEN, G3 patients scheduled for cisplatin/carboplatin + etoposide therapy.

Original languageEnglish
Article number47
JournalMedical Oncology
Volume35
Issue number4
Pages (from-to)1-7
Number of pages7
ISSN1357-0560
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Apr 2018

Keywords

  • Administration, Oral
  • Adult
  • Aged
  • Aged, 80 and over
  • Antineoplastic Agents, Phytogenic/administration & dosage
  • Disease-Free Survival
  • Etoposide/administration & dosage
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Infusions, Intravenous
  • Intestinal Neoplasms/drug therapy
  • Kaplan-Meier Estimate
  • Male
  • Middle Aged
  • Neuroendocrine Tumors/drug therapy
  • Pancreatic Neoplasms/drug therapy
  • Proportional Hazards Models
  • Retrospective Studies
  • Stomach Neoplasms/drug therapy
  • Treatment Outcome

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